Frédéric Vasseur was pleased to see his Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team score four points during Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix, only the fourth top ten finish for the outfit in 2021.
Kimi Räikkönen scored the teams’ best finish of the year to date with an eighth-place finish at the Sochi Autodrom to bring Alfa Romeo’s points tally for the season to seven. They remain ninth in the Constructors’ Championship with seven races remaining.
Vasseur, the Team Principal of the Hinwal-based squad, felt the team brought Räikkönen into the pits at the right time when the rain began to fall towards the end of the race, and it brought the veteran Finn into the points-paying positions.
However, he was disappointed that Antonio Giovinazzi was unable to take home a top ten finish in the second C41-Ferrari, with the Italian struggling throughout the race without having use of his radio.
“The race ended up being very exciting and we head home with a good haul of points,” said Vasseur. “Despite a difficult Saturday, we entered the race with some quiet optimism as we knew we would be in a position to fight.
“Kimi had a good start to jump to P10, while Antonio was hit and had to recover from the back. He was in a few good fights and made some nice overtaking moves –all the more so as he had no radio. Kimi was able to stay with Ocon for most of the race, just outside the points, and when the rain came we made the right call to stop for inters.
“He was able to make up ground and cross the line in P8, four good points for the team. It’s a good result, a reward for the job we have done so far and a confidence boost ahead of the next race in Turkey, in two weeks.”